A PRELIMINARY ESSAY ON CONCEPTUAL ART AND COPYRIGHT

Abstract

Conceptual Art encompasses a wide range of formats which, in brief, imply a challenge to its legal protection under the traditional systems of copyright, for its authors assume an artistic approach where ideas are prioritised over its materialization, which might eventually not occur. Hence, these works of art usually are to be deemed as untypical out of their extravagance vis-à-vis the classical legal categories. This essay proposes a scheme of which are the main questions to deal with, that is: it is of vital relevance above all to attend to the very nature of the specific work in order to approach it utmost to the existing categories and, therefrom, to procure it with the optimal legal treatment. In this field of considerations, the complexity in the execution of the works very often requires the essential cooperation of third parties, a circumstance that has recently nurtured their claim of authorship at an equivalent level of whom originally conceived them and called for their participation thereon. The analysis shall proceed with attention to the doctrine of fair use as per the so-called appropriation art. The essay shall follow with a section devoted to the transmission of pieces not yet executed, to conclude with the exhibition of works of art once the author has passed away without leaving a set of precise instructions behind.